NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft launches into space through thin clouds aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Lift off occurred at approximately 2:47 a.m. on 3 July 2002. If all goes according to plan over the next few years the CONTOUR spacecraft will rendezvous with and observe the inner regions of two comets. UPDATE: Aug 16, 2002 Telescope images indicate that the missing U.S. Contour space probe may have been destroyed when it fired its engine to escape Earth orbit on Thursday, a NASA official said Friday. Images from astronomers working at SpaceWatch asteroid observation program at the University of Arizona show the probe may have broken in two, the official said.
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